Way to Go, Ayu~

Last New Year’s Eve, Ayumi Hamasaki — Jpop Queen Diva Extraordinaire — gathered with her fans at the Yotogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo for Hamasaki’s yearly (she’s been having these almost from the beginning of her career in 2000) New Year countdown concert.

Celebrating now 15 years in her career, Hamasaki is one of the few Japanese artists that are putting social media to good use — and to celebrate with her fans, she’s uploaded the whole visual fest of a concert on YouTube. All one hour and thirty minutes of it in amazing high definition with no logos whatsoever. And even if you are not fond of Hamasaki’s music, we all gotta admit that’s to be applauded.

The concert plays to Ayumi Hamasaki’s strengths- at points, the concert is visually stunning with some general shots highlighted by perfect lighting and color palettes. There’s a segment when Hamasaki’s flowy salmon-y dress is floating up- she looks like freshly shaved Katsuobushi [1] on a hot dish.